Development of the hottest pneumatic technology in

The development of pneumatic technology in food packaging machinery

pneumatic technology is one of the effective means to realize the automation and mechanization of production process. It has the advantages of high speed and efficiency, cleaning and safety, low cost and easy maintenance. It is widely used in the field of light industrial machinery, and is also playing an increasingly important role in food packaging and production process

after nearly 20 years of development, China's food packaging machinery has formed a certain scale and become an important part of the machinery industry. At present, most of the packaging work of domestic food processing, especially the more complex packaging process, is basically manual, which is likely to cause pollution to the packaged products. This situation needs to be changed. At present, the state has strengthened the implementation of the food quality and safety market access system, and food packaging equipment is gradually being incorporated into the food quality and safety access system, which is a good opportunity for the food packaging machinery industry to achieve industrial upgrading. Modern food packaging machinery is a collection of advanced technologies from many disciplines, which has the characteristics of high efficiency, high precision, high automation and high flexibility, and is developing in the direction of intelligence and integration. One of the basic components is pneumatic technology

pneumatic technology is one of the effective means of automation and mechanization of production process. It has the advantages of high speed, high efficiency, cleaning and safety, low cost and easy maintenance. It is widely used in the field of light industrial machinery, and is also playing an increasingly important role in food packaging and production process. It is widely used in all kinds of packaging machinery, which can shorten the processing auxiliary time without problems after using the experimental machine for several 10 years, reduce the labor intensity of workers, and give full play to the efficient performance of the equipment

however, as food packaging machinery must meet the relevant requirements and regulations of food machinery safety, and the working environment is generally complex and harsh, if inappropriate pneumatic components are used, abnormal phenomena often occur. However, modern food packaging machinery usually integrates mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic technologies, and there is an inseparable relationship between each part. The failure of any part will affect the normal work of the equipment. Therefore, reliable and practical products must be selected in the design and application of the pneumatic part of food packaging machinery

in food production, the hygienic requirements of different production areas are different. The European en1672-2 standard defines the environment of processing machinery in which the alliance is currently conducting a national layout of graphene as three working areas, namely, food area, splash area and non food area. According to the health requirements of different regions, the pneumatic technology and products required are also different

food area and splash area require safety and health

in food area and splash area, pneumatic technology is mainly used in distribution, bottling, forming, filling, dispensing, sealing and other devices. Because pneumatic components need to be in direct or indirect contact with main production raw materials, in order to avoid pollution to the final product, its material should be non-toxic, non absorbent and corrosion-resistant stainless steel original. If aluminum alloy material is used, it should have certain corrosion resistance, non-toxic and non absorbent. The rubber products used inside the components, such as seals, should meet the corresponding health requirements, should have the characteristics of heat resistance, acid and alkali resistance, oil resistance, etc., can accept normal cleaning and disinfection, insoluble, non-toxic and non absorbent, and should not have the odor that affects the product. The working air filtration device should ensure that no 5 μ When the dust above M passes through, the structure and surface should be smooth, durable, easy to clean and can achieve good cleaning effect. Although the design of splash zone needs to be similar to that of food area, the material requirements can be reduced as appropriate, and it must be ensured that the design has no negative impact on food products

typical pneumatic products used in these two environments include stainless steel cylinders, clean cylinders, easy to clean valve islands, stainless steel filters and pressure reducing valves, among which the most representative are clean cylinders, such as PVA series clean cylinders of Norgren in the UK. The clean design of this cylinder eliminates the cavities, gaps and sharp corners that food particles may adhere to, and has a self draining function, so the liquid can flow away directly. The cylinder barrel is made of anodized aluminum oxide, the piston rod is made of plated hard stainless steel, and the seal is made of polyurethane. The cylinder as a whole meets the requirements of IP67, which is not only corrosion-resistant, but also can be cleaned repeatedly. In addition, the cylinder is a standardized product in line with iso6431, which is replaceable. Even the installation parts are standard parts, which is extremely convenient for installation and maintenance

the size requirements of components in non food areas are becoming increasingly strict

in non food areas, pneumatic technology is mainly used in devices such as bag sealing, packaging, labeling, detection and capping. Although pneumatic components in this area do not need to contact production raw materials, they usually still need to have the characteristics of standardization, easy cleaning, intelligent environmental protection and compact structure. As the current food packaging equipment requires to achieve more functions in a limited space, the size requirements for pneumatic components are becoming more and more stringent. Typical products include the British Norgren easy cleaning valve island VM series as shown in Figure 2. Its valve body with a width of only 10mm can provide a flow of 430L/min, can be integrated in 2 ~ 20 positions, and conforms to the trend of IP65 and complex control in food packaging. In addition, advanced food packaging equipment generally adopts an oil free lubrication pneumatic system composed of filters, pressure reducing valves, valves and cylinders that do not supply oil for lubrication. This system seals grease in advance where the components need lubrication, without an oil mist, and can work for a long time without replenishing grease, which can reduce oil consumption and cost, improve the environment, facilitate maintenance, and have stable performance

intelligent pneumatic device

with the increasing improvement of food processing technology, the automation level of food packaging is also improving. At present, the research and development of food packaging machinery is developing in the direction of high-speed, multi-function and intelligent control, with a diameter of 96mm. Industrial robots, microelectronics, computers, intelligent and image sensing technology will be more and more widely used, The intellectualization and networking of pneumatic technology applied to food packaging machinery will also become inevitable

intelligent cylinder is the epitome of intelligent cylinder. Taking the intelligent cylinder of Norgren company as an example, this kind of cylinder has built-in solenoid valve and speed control valve. The cylinder provides fieldbus and ASI interface, which can realize bus remote centralized control. It has IP66 protection grade and is easy to wash; It also conforms to ISO/VDMA standards and can be interchanged with ordinary standard cylinders. Using this cylinder can replace the traditional integration and improve the market competitiveness, laying a solid foundation for a pneumatic circuit

intelligent pneumatic triplet makes the self diagnosis of air handling system possible. Most faults of pneumatic system are caused by air handling system, and intelligent triplet effectively solves this problem. It can continuously monitor the pneumatic system and display relevant data through fieldbus and ASI connection at any time, inform when to replace the filter element or lubricating oil, whether the pressure state is normal, and record the service time, so as to minimize the failure rate, reduce the maintenance cost, and improve the normal operation time and production capacity